Si vis pacem, para bellum

Philippine naval developments

Something from colleague, Collin Koh, who had a commentary published with The Diplomat. As Collin argues, “while it takes years to build up a credible defense capacity, a crisis in the South China Sea could literally happen overnight. Yet without the requisite military capacity in place, there’s virtually nothing that the Philippines could do …”

At least there is some fairly hard-headed strategic analysis regarding strategic challenges and requirements on the one hand and military capabilities on the other that underpins the Philippine decision. I would argue that too much of Southeast Asian military acquisitions are predicated on toys for boys, and therefore often lack any genuine strategic rationale whatsoever!